A Generation in the Land

Born in Bielsko, Poland, writer and journalist Shlomo Tanai (also spelled Tanny) immigrated to Palestine with his family at a young age. After training as a journalist in France and the United States, Tanai returned to Israel in the 1940s to help define a new generation of Israeli literature. He joined the staff of Haaretz in 1944, working as a war correspondent in 1948. In addition to his own prolific oeuvre as a poet, children’s author, and translator, Tanai worked widely as an editor of books and magazines.

Moshe Shamir, born in Safed and educated in Tel Aviv, was an Israeli politician, novelist, playwright, and journalist who popularized the idea of the sabra, the strong, native “new” Israeli. During Israel’s War of Independence, Shamir served in the Palmach. After the Six-Day War, Shamir moved from the left to the right of the Israeli political spectrum. He served in the Knesset from 1977 to 1981. The author of more than fifty books, Shamir received the Israel Prize for Hebrew Literature in 1988.

Born in Poland, Azriel Okhmani (also spelled Ukhmani) studied agronomy in France before immigrating to Palestine in 1932. Besides his agricultural efforts, Okhmani was a prolific literary critic and helped to found and edit several early Israeli newspapers and literary journals, including Al ha-Mishmar and Ittim. Okhmani was also a committed member of the left-wing political party Mapam, and in the late 1940s, he served as a counselor at the Israeli embassy in Warsaw.